Nicki Minaj Is Now The Female Artist With The Most Hot 100 Hits

Aretha Franklin has lost her place at the top of the charts. According to Billboard, this week Nicki Minaj managed to supplanted The “Queen of Soul” and take the all-time record for most Hot 100 hits by a female artist. She didn’t best Aretha by a single song either. No, Nicki leapfrogged the “Respect” singer with three different tracks, bringing her all-time total to a jaw-dropping 76-entries on the Hot 100. “Regret in Your Tears,” “Changed It,” with Lil Wayne, and “No Frauds,” her Remy Ma clap-back with Drake and Lil Wayne were the ones that put her over the top.

It’s an incredible feat, especially once you consider that Aretha personally held the record for almost 40 years going all the way back to June 18, 1977 when she took the crown from Connie Francis with her song “Break It To Me Gently.” At the time, that was her 54th Hot 100 entry. Though she recently announced her retirement from touring, Franklin also revealed her plans to record and release one more album. It’s not inconceivable that she can find a way to pad her stats.

While this is no doubt a stunning achievement for Minaj, she’s got some major competition hot on her heels. Currently in third-place all-time is Taylor Swift who has managed to log 70 Hot 100 entries herself. If the reports are to be believed and she has another album coming out sometime soon, you can expect that number to swell exponentially.

Important caveat directly from the Billboard article:
“In line with the collaborative style of hip-hop, Minaj has been credited as a lead artist on 32 of her Hot 100 entries and featured on 44. Franklin has boasted lead billing on all 73 of her Hot 100 hits.”

This is no disrespect to Minaj, she’s a great artist with a high level of skill whose guest spots are often the highlights of those songs. But to omit that important distinction doesn’t give the Queen of Soul the (ahem) respect she deserves.